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MEMBERSHIP
ROTARYDOWNUNDER.ORG | 11 |
YOU hear it all the time. “We’re
a really friendly club and welcome
visitors.”
Oh yeah.
As an experienced Rotarian, but
new chum to a new district, I knew
I needed to find a fun club where
members were on my wavelength. A
club where I felt welcome and valued.
My strategy was to draw up a list of
clubs, then find out more about them
before visiting the main contenders
and making a decision.
First step was an internet search –
and what an eye-opener that was! It
was staggering how many websites
were out of date, some by three or
four years, while some lacked the
most basic information such as a
contact email. Content often failed
to showcase the club’s achievements
or offer a glimpse into the club’s
Words by (Name and Rotary club withheld by Rotary Down Under)
A fun-loving Rotarian recounts their
experience of looking for a new club.
A club hunter’s guide to
gaining new members
• Keep your website
relevant, informative
and up to date
• Create an engaging
social media presence
• Have a friendly and
informed member at the
end of your club email
– one who will make
a visitor’s experience
terrific from the first
contact
• Find out a little about
the visitor, then let
club members know in
advance about their visit
• Have procedures in
place to cater for visitors
• Assign a buddy to all
visitors
• Encourage members to
speak with the visitor
by including them in
conversations
• Above all, make the
visitor feel welcome and
important
Tips to turn
visitors into
members:
personality. Hmmm, that put a line
through quite a few clubs.
Same for social media. Few clubs had
a SM presence, and of those that did
have, say, a Facebook page, many had
not been posted on for months or even
years. More clubs struck off my list.
Then I sent off a few emails to
clubs seeking information about their
meeting. One or two didn’t respond.
One person didn’t know when the next
meeting was. A couple of responses
were curt and certainly didn’t make
me feel welcome. That whittled my list
down even further.
So, I trotted along to several
meetings where the reception ranged
from very welcoming to plain rude.
At one meeting, the club did not
bother to acknowledge me as a guest
during the meeting. I’d find few
members took the time to engage
with me, preferring to chat with their
mates instead.
At one club, no one knew who
the membership person was, and
everyone thought that a huge joke.
One president simply thrust a joining
form under my nose and told me to fill
it out, then walked away.
That eliminated a few more clubs.
The good news is that I did find
the right club, and I’m now happily
entrenched in that club. From the
moment I walked in the door I was
made to feel welcome. But the one
thing that swung the pendulum in
this club’s favour was one member
who made a point of sitting next
to me and explaining things as the
meeting progressed.
So, the message for clubs is to
take a long, hard look at the way
they treat their visitors – all of whom
are potential members. If you treat
a prospective member who’s an
experienced Rotarian badly, what hope
have you got of attracting younger,
new members? 
“It was staggering
how many websites
were out of date,
some by three
or four years,
while some lacked
the most basic
information such
as a contact email.”